55 Quotes by Simon Baron-Cohen

Autistic people's disabilities are widely known, but one of their best-established strengths is their attention to detail.

Like any skill, systemising occurs on a bell curve in the population, with some people being faster at spotting patterns than others. Autistic people are often strong systemisers. Indeed their attention is often described as 'obsessive' as they check and recheck the patterns of a system.

With the right support and reasonable adjustments, autistic people make wonderful employees.

We've done fMRI scans of people taking the 'Reading the Eyes' test, and what we've found is that the amygdala lights up in trying to figure out people's thoughts and feelings. In people with autism, they show highly reduced amygdala activity.

Autism doesn't seem to have a seasonal component, unlike some forms of depression.

A diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome can be useful to help a person understand why they have had difficulties.

We have found fathers and grandfathers of children with autism are more likely to be engineers.

In general it's good to give children as wide a choice as possible, and there is no harm in encouraging children to play with 'typical' toys for the opposite sex. But whether they should be trying to change children is a more ethical decision; I think we should be supporting a child's interests, whatever they are.

If you've got good systemising skills you can apply them to systems you aren't familiar with, and look for patterns.